


A Different Kind of Magic

by orphan_account



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Bullying, Depression, Drug Use, M/M, Voodoo stuff, Witchcraft, and probably satanic stuff, inspiration from ahs coven, lots of personal headcanons for humanstuck characters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-08
Updated: 2016-05-06
Packaged: 2018-05-31 23:54:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 10,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6492820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Witchcraft and Voodoo is completely different. So different, in fact, that they hate eachother about it. While Voodoo is considered 'barbaric' and 'impure', Witchcraft is considered 'dark magic' and 'too orthodox', and down in New Orleans, these two practices and communities clash all the time.</p><p>Growing up in the Order of the Lost Coven, Tavros Nitram himself has never truly encountered a voodoo magician. He had heard much about them from his father, the coven Surpreme called the Summoner, and he had heard that they were barbaric, disgusting, and dangerous, and to be frank, they terrified him. But one day, while at school, he meets someone who catches his eye, and couldn't possibly be more obvious about his use of voodoo magic. It's probably because that guy is a pothead by the name of Gamzee Makara.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Tavros

     Tavros Nitram silently slept in his bed, clinging to a small white plush of what appeared to be some kind of bull-fairy thing. Even though he was missing both of his legs, he was quite the looker. He had olive skin, long eyelashes, and a rather stocky build. If you had him sit side by side with his brother and father, you could quite certainly see the resemblance. They all had absolutely wonderful smiles (his brother Rufioh called it the 'Nitram Charm'), beautiful olive skin, dark hair and broad builds. If it weren't for the fact that Rufioh had dyed his hair bright red and black and got a tongue piercing and Tavros was missing his legs and had a septum piercing, then they could have been mistaken for twins. 

     This particular young man lived in a large white colonial style mansion, which housed the Order of the Last Coven. About forty other young men and woman lived there as well, and all of them had dorms of three to four people. Of course, the boys were separated from the girls for privacy reasons, and Tavros shared his room with three boys by the name of Dave Strider, Karkat Vantas, and John Egbert. They were nice enough. Dave kind of intimidated him and Karkat was always yelling, which tended to scare Tavros a little, but John was really nice and funny! Well, unless he was playing a prank on you. The main thing he did know about them was that they were in a polyamourous relationship and absolutely refused to sleep in separate beds. 

     As the sun began to peer through the thin curtains, thumps of footsteps came up the stairs quickly and someone kicked open the door to their room.

     "Rise and shine fellas!" Rufioh said loudly and walked over to the curtains, tearing them open and allowing sunlight to flood into the room, momentarily blinding the still sleep groggy boys.

     "Dude....what the fuck," groaned Dave, who sat up, grabbing at the nightstand as he looked for his sunglasses. 

     John just kind of groaned and rolled over, pulling his pillow over his head to block out the sunlight and noise.

     "WAKE ME UP WHEN IT'S SATURDAY." Karkat yelled at Rufioh and pulled his blanket over his head. 

     Tavros, on the other hand, blinked awake rather pleasantly and propped himself up on his elbows, yawning softly, "Oh, good morning Rufioh..." He had lived in the coven home for so long, that he was quite used to Rufioh's obnoxious wake up calls, as the other three had arrived only a mere five months ago. But it also helped that Tavros was a morning person.

     Tavros scooted over to the side of his bed, setting his plushie down on his night table and began to rifle through his drawers, looking for something to wear. Ever since the Accident, Tavros's dresser had been moved closer to his bed, which was moved there by his father who knew that the first thing that Tavros did was change when he woke up. 

     Eventually, Tavros settled on wearing a long sleeved shirt with brown sleeves, along with a green bandana and some black denim jeans. After shedding off his pajama shirt and changing into his clothes for the day, he pulled his wheelchair over to his bed and lifted himself off of his bed and into it. Since the leg holes of his jeans were empty, he decided to just tuck that part of the jeans underneath him and he wheeled himself around, looking at the others who had accepted their fate of having to get up and get ready for school. Even though they were in a coven , that didn't mean that they didn't go to school. 

     "I'll, uh, see you guys downstairs," Tavros said awkwardly as they changed, wheeling himself out and into the hallway.

     From the looks of it, Rufioh had run to each room to wake people up, even the girls part of the house, which ultimately resulted in Damara Megido, one of the scariest girls in the coven, socking the dude in the stomach while only clad in a bra and shorts. 

      Tavros glanced down the stairs, knowing that the last time he had walked down there was over a year ago, before the Accident. He sighed, frowning a bit as he wheeled himself over, away from the stairs, and towards an old fashioned elevator in the corner, which had previously served as a midnight snack bar (they hid food in there in case anyone ever got the munchies or anything), but now served as Tavros's only way of getting up and down the stairs. Once he got inside the cramped space, he shut the gate and pressed the down button. The elevator slowly descended down, rattling loudly as a humming sound emitted from it. 

     He sighed softly, running a hand through his mowhawk tiredly. It was the first day of school, which meant more 'stump legs' jokes and teasing from other students outside of the coven and Vriska Serket. 

     Vriska Serket was actually the one who started the accident. Each member of the coven had a certain gift which they perfected while living in the safety of the coven, and while Tavros, at the age of 17, _still_  didn't know his gift, Vriska had already discovered her gift and was really good at it. Unfortunately, however, it was the gift of Telepathic Manipulation, and she hated Tavros for some reason. 

     Tavros could still remember the Accident as if it were just yesterday. He had been LARPing with Aradia Megido and Vriska, when Vriska and him got separated from Aradia. Walking a bit ahead of Vriska, he didn't notice her begin her spell, a mind manipulation one at that, and he could hear a whispering. Quiet voices telling him to jump. To fly. Fly far away. Involuntarily, his legs began to direct him in the direction of the edge of a bridge. And then...

     ...he jumped.

     At first everything felt numb, almost surreal, but as he began to sink back into reality, the numbness faded into a blinding white hot pain. He remembered shakily looking at the stem of the pain. His legs. They were a mangled, bloody, mess. If he wasn't on the verge of passing out, he probably would have thrown up, as he could see that his legs were certainly no supposed to bend that way, and bone protruding through his skin in some places. But just as the world began to fade into darkness, he could faintly hear an oh so familiar laugh coming from the top of the bridge.

     His legs had to be amputated, as they were far too messed up to ever heal properly and had an exetremely high risk of getting infected. Tavros could remember seeing the mixed emotions in people's eyes as they wished for him to feel better. Shame, pity, sadness......he felt ashamed and embarrassed, as if it were all his fault. Perhaps his legs weren't the only things that shattered when he took a swan dive off of that bridge.

     Tavros snapped out of his reverie when the old elevator dinged, and he reached over to open the gate, looking around at all of the other people walking around groggily. As he wheeled himself out of the elevator, he saw two people as he recognized as Jake, John and Jade's cousin, and Dirk, Dave's older brother, asleep and leaning against eachother on the couch. From the looks of it, neither of them had gotten much sleep, and Jake had been halfway through lacing up one of his boots as he fell asleep. Upon seeing how cute the two looked all asleep like that, he sighed rather wistfully, wishing that he could have that. Not going to lie, Tavros was a bit of a hopeless romantic. 

     Looking away from the cute duo, he wheeled himself into the kitchen, where a large assortment of breakfast foods had been laid out on one of the long white tables, people lining up on both sides and serving themselves food. Tavros got a plate and got in line, behind Jade, John's sister. He looked up at her, too shy to say anything but too entranced to look away. 

     He had had a bit of a crush on Jade when she first arrived, finding her absolutely beautiful. She dark black hair that cascaded down her back, held together today by a messy braid, and the most beautiful green eyes that he had ever seen. Her porcelain skin was dotted with freckles that went from her face down to her arms, only adding to her attractiveness. But, he was pretty certain that she had her eyes on Nepeta Leijon, another girl who was in the coven. 

     Glancing over at Nepeta, Tavros found that he really couldn't blame her. Nepeta was fit, almost always cheerful and happy, and quite cute herself. She was African American, and had amazing shoulder length hair that matched her personality. Wild and carefree. She had deep, dark brown eyes and full lips which were always smiling. She was really fun to talk to as well, so she was probably the total package, perfect for Jade. 

     Wheeling himself forwards as the line moved, he sighed a little sadly. Thinking about the fact that he couldn't have her made him rather depressed, which he probably didn't need to feel. Shaking his head a bit, he began to serve himself some food, loading his plate with waffles with syrup, and strawberries, pouring himself a glass of chocolate milk as well before setting it down in front of him in his wheelchair and carefully rolling over to a table with Aradia, Sollux, Feferi, and Nepeta.

     Aradia had come to the coven when she was about twelve when she had found that whatever she touched ultimately ended up dying within the minute. This was a rather rare gift, popularly known as the 'Black Touch'. Due to this, it was known that she could kill anyone by touching them, but it was luckily prevented by her having to wear brown leather gloves, which had been enchanted with a magic disablement spell set by the Summoner. She had moved from Japan to America prior to that, but unfortunately, her older sister Damara still didn't speak the best English. She had a thin frame and thick black hair that was absolutely wild, but still tamer than Nepeta's hair. She had beautiful porcelain skin which contrasted with her dark clothing that she always seemed to wear. 

     Sollux was Aradia's boyfriend who was really into computers and coding and rarely even left his room when he wasn't in school. He had messy dark brown hair with some pretty impressive sideburns and naturally dark skin that had blotches of white that contrasted against it. Unfortunately, Sollux got teased for the fact that he had vitiligo at school a lot, but he never hesitated to immediately sass back whoever decided to fuck with him. If anything, Tavros kind of envied him. He also wore 3D glasses 24/7, and spoke with a heavy lisp. The cutest thing about Sollux and Aradia, however, was how in love with eachother they were. It was positively adorable.

     Feferi was the daughter of one of the witches and warlocks in the Head Council, but never made a big show about it. She had a rather curvy figure and was a bit chubby, and long strawberry blonde hair that went down to her lower back. She had olive skin that looked much like Tavros's but unlike Tavros's, it was dappled in scattered freckles. She was always upbeat and got excited rather easily, making her rather fun to be around. Tavros liked spending time with her in the swamps when they were gathering supplies for spells and such, as she would sometimes pause to talk to some of the catfish. It was endearing. She was originally from L.A., but when she found that she could get sea animals to do her will, her mother immediately sent her to the coven to join. 

     Nepeta was the only one in her family who had come to the coven, unlike most of the people who lived at the coven. It was known that her older sister by the name of Meulin had gone missing about a year ago. It was a classic running away from home thing, but unlike a lot who did that, she never came back. Nepeta didn't particularly enjoy talking about it, and would quickly change the subject if anyone brought it up. Her power was the power of Resurgence, which was basically a bit of the opposite of Aradia's. When she brought something back, however, it usually drained most of her energy. She was still working on that. 

     When Tavros rolled up to the table, he went to his usual spot and set his plate and glass in front of him as Aradia smiled warmly at him, "Good morning, Tavros," she said pleasantly, one of her gloved hands holding Sollux's, entertaining their fingers.

     "Good morning!" Tavros smiled at her while Sollux nodded to him in his usual uninterested manor as if to acknowledge that he was there.

     Feferi tucked her hair behind her ear and smiled, "Sleep whale?" She giggled a bit at her own pun and took a bite of her food as Tavros nodded, "Hehe, yeah, I slept pretty 'whale'."

     While Nepeta was digging into her own food, Sollux groaned audibly, "I _do not_  want to go back to school. It fucking sucks." 

     People who lived in the coven tended to get called out for being freaks or weirdos, moreso Tavros, Sollux, Nepeta, Dave, Dirk, and a few others. Most of them could handle it no problem, but it occasionally got to Tavros, who was already pretty sensitive to begin with. When he was caught off guard or something by an insult, the one to usually come to his rescue was his brother Rufioh.

     Tavros nodded in agreement, beginning to eat his food as he began to ponder if anything interesting would occur today. He sure hoped so. Maybe something dramatic would happen like in those cheesy romance movies like love at first sight or anything. There was no saving this hopeless romantic.

     But in reality, no one can ever really plan ahead what's going to happen. You usually have to just go with the current and see where fate takes you. This day in particular, however, fate would pull Tavros towards something different. Something strange. Something uniquely beautiful. Something....dangerous.


	2. Gamzee

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And now we arrive at the House of Makara, where shit isn't as organized as the Order of the Lost Coven.

A lanky teen lied down, snuggled in a heap of colorful blankets and pillows. He had a messy mop of black hair on his head, black plug earrings on his ears, and wore oversized spotted grey and black sweats with a t shirt that read 'don't cry, get high' across the front. He was currently alone in his room, snoring peacefully as the stale smell of weed still clung to the room. It was safe to say that this teen in particular, was what most would call a pothead. Not that anyone really minded. He just did his own thing, went with the flow.

    A small goat pushed its way through the door and walked over to the teens sleeping form, and began to munch his messy hair. Or at least attempt to. Feeling the goat spit in his hair, he yawned loudly, startling the animal and causing it to stumble back a little. He rubbed his eyes, looking over at the goat with a sleepy smile, "Good mornin, Motherfucker."

    Yep. That goats name was Motherfucker.

    He scratched it between the ears before sitting up, stretching his limbs tiredly as he rubbed his face, remnants of face paint that he had forgotten to wash off the previous night rubbing off on his hands.

    Typically, face paint was reserved for ceremonies and important hexes, and he only ever wore it for that occasion or whenever he just got either high or bored.

    He yawned once more and stood up, pulling his pants up a little before walking over and out of the room, scratching his messy hair.

    "Good morning Gamzee!" A feminine voice said as he walked into the kitchen.

    The voice belonged to Gamzee's brother's partially deaf girlfriend, Meulin Leijon. She was only partially deaf, as Gamzee, his brother, and his father had managed to heal most of it via ceremony and some bargaining with Papa Legba for assistance. Gamzee didn't really know where the hell his bro found her, but he liked her. She cooked cat shaped pancakes, so she was ok in his books. She had long, wild black hair that went down to her lower back, skin that reminded Gamzee of chocolate, and big brown eyes that twinkled whenever she got excited of came up with something cool.

    "Good mornin, Meulin." Gamzee sat down at the small table in the kitchen, which had mismatching chairs pulled around it.

    Their home was a lot nicer than it seemed. It was a large cabin located by the swamps made with dark wood, it had two stories plus an attic and basement, and was originally designed to look large and elegant. But that style soon faded away when the Makaras bought it.

    This building in particular was known as the House of the Makara, and it was lead by the Grand High Blood, also known as Gamzee's father.

    Gamzee's  father was a temperamental man, but whenever it came to what was going on inside his house, he could care less. As long as his fellow voodoo magicians did their work and got shit done, he was fine with it. Besides, he spent most of his time dealing with people who came to them for miraculous voodoo help that stupid witchcraft couldn't solve.

    "How are ya doin?" Gamzee asked, yawning a bit as he did so. It usually took him awhile to wake up completely.

    "Purrity good!" Meulin replied, pouring Gamzee some loose leaf herbal tea and handing him it in his usual chipped mug, "Here! This should wake mew up purrfectly!"

    Gamzee smiled gratefully at the ever helpful Meulin and nodded, "Thanks, sis," he then took a swig of the tea as two others joined them, still rather groggy from sleep.

    One of them was named Equius Zahhak, who was a mountain of a teen. He was just about all muscle, and had long flowing black hair that framed his face. His facial features and naturally tanned skin showed that he came from Native American descent, and his stoic nature reminded Gamzee of one of those tribal chiefs in his history books.

    The second one, who was considerably smaller than Equius, shared some physical qualities with him. His name was Horuss Zahhak and he had similar long hair, which was pulled back into a loose ponytail, and the same facial features as Equius. Large-ish nose, tired eyes, and rectangular faces. The difference between them, however, was that while Equius was broad and all muscle, Horuss was lanky and thin.

    Equius walked to the refrigerator and poured himself a glass of milk as Horuss sat at the other end of the table, yawning quietly.

    "Good morning guys!" Meulin chirped as she finished making breakfast. She was the only one in the house could cook decently.

   "Good morning, Meulin," Horuss smiled awkwardly as Equius drank his milk.

    Gamzee soon finished his herbal tea and set the mug down on the table, squinting a bit, "Hey....I think I forgot something..." He looked over at Equius, "Bro, when does school start up and runnin?"

    Equius sighed through his nose, looking over at Gamzee, "It starts today." It was quite impressive how much of Gamzee's bullshit that he could put up with, as he tended to forget things often and would have violent outbursts occasionally that either Equius or Kurloz would have to handle.

    Basically, Equius was Gamzee's glorified babysitter.

    "Oh damn..." he slowly got up, shaking some of his wild hair out of his eyes, "I'mma go get my backpack then."

     As Gamzee began to grab his backpack, his brother, Kurloz, walked into the kitchen and sighed, signing 'Does he know that he must change out of his pajamas before he goes to school?' to Meulin. She looked over at him and giggled a little, glancing over to Gamzee, "Gamzee, mew do know that you have to change out of your pajamas befur mew go, right?" She smiled a bit as Kurloz hugged her from behind, resting his chin on her shoulder.

     Kurloz looked almost identical to Gamzee, except he was taller and was mute. The only people who knew sign language well was Meulin and Gamzee, and they'd often have to translate what he said to the others.

     Gamzee paused, looking at his clothes before straightening up, "Aw shit, you're right." he looked down at his clothes before walking back to his  room. 

     From first glance, his room hardly even looked like a room. There was an old worn down wooden desk that sat by a window that was a fancy stained glass one with what was some kind of rustic design on it. The window cast colors of purple, red, and orange over the room, which had an iron light fixture hanging by a chain on the ceiling. It had stumps of burnt out candles on it, which were covered by the most random of things. Mostly discarded socks and a scarf from when the time his friend Eridan came over and Gamzee stole it. In the corner, there was a pile of colorful blankets and pillows placed atop a mattress that had black sheets covering. Hardly even a decent bed, but he could care less. 

     He made a beeline to his closet and opened it up, only to have a box of bicycle horns fall on him, making a distressed sounding "honk" as they fell. After hitting his head, the box fell on the ground and scattered the horns all around the room. He just kind of laughed a little and stared at them for about three minutes before remembering what he was doing.

     Grabbing a Mad Clown Posse t shirt, he pulled off his pajama shirt and sweatpants, only in his boxers as he pulls on his new t shirt. He then sifts through the mess of clothes at the bottom of his closet, searching for a pair of jeans. He grabbed the first one he saw, which just so happened to be a pair of oversized black jeans with rainbow paint splatters all over them. Huh. How did those get there?

     He grabbed a black hoodie and pulled on some purple high tops before slinging his guitar case onto his shoulder and walking back to livingroom, which was connected to the kitchen.

     Kurloz caught sight of him and walked over to him, taking Gamzee's face in his hands and wiping the last of his face paint off, smiling slightly at him before letting go and signing 'Have a good day at school' to him. Gamzee grinned his usual lopsided grin and nodded, "I'll try, bro." He looked over at Equius, who was grabbing his own backpack, "Ready to go?"

     Equius gave a small nod and began to walk to the door, Gamzee in tow. He wasn't going to lie, he was kind of excited for the beginning of the new year. Hopefully this year would go better than last year. Maybe he would even make a new friend! 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wowzers that was a quick update!
> 
> Credit to sinisterSpirits for giving me the idea of naming the goat Motherfucker :)  
> 


	3. Tavros

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to hell--I mean high school. Basically, Vriska is a bitch, and Tavros gets the brunt of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: BULLYING, DEPRESSING THOUGHTS

     Eventually, everyone (who was still in highschool, that is) all filed out of the house and made their way to school. Tavros held his backpack in his lap as he went along, dreading the arrival to school. Sometimes he wished that he could just one day fly away to Neverland or something. Anything to get away from the grim reality that he would probably never feel truly accepted at that hellhole called school. Usually, he'd try to keep the dark cloud of his own personal thoughts away, try to keep a relatively positive attitude, but the events of last year's humility still hung heavy on his shoulders. It wasn't anything particularly dramatic, it was just the combination of all of the bullying and teasing that occured last year. He quickly snapped out of his thoughts when his wheelchair suddenlt surged forwards, feeling someone begin to push it for him.

     "Lemme guess, you're not so excited for school?" a familiar voice said as Tavros looked up at Dave's emotionless face.

     If Dave wasn't already in a relationship with Karkat and John, Tavros would have happily offered to go out with him. He had skin which was slightly darker than Tavros's and spotted with freckles, and snowy white hair which contrasted greatly. Underneath his shades, he had unique ruby red eyes, which held such an intensity that he looked scary as fuck when he was pissed.

     "Heh...Is it that obvious?" Tavros said awkwardly, letting go of the wheels on his chair.

     Dave gave a small shake of his head, "No, not at all." he said sarcastically, causing Tavros to give a small laugh.

     "I, uh, just don't really feel like I'll be able to stand another year of the leg jokes...you know?" Tavros sighed a little. A lot of the teens in the coven had to deal with this. Sollux got made fun of for his skin, Nepeta got made fun of for her love of cats, the list goes on.

     "Yeah, I feel you. But hey, we've got your back." Dave gave him a pat on the shoulder when he stopped pushing the wheelchair, as they had arrived to the school. The small crowd of teens from the coven dispersed, Dave leaving to go walk to classes with Karkat and John. Tavros just looked around, sighing a little before beginning to push himself forwards, making sure to ignore any stares he got from others.

     Stopping by the door to the hallway, Tavros pulled out a folded up paper from his backpack and looked over it, nibbling his lower lip out of worry. Of course. His homeroom, biology, and calculus classes were all located in the upstairs building. It was almost like even the falculty wasn't on his side. Did they even have an elevator? He wasn't ready for this. All of his classes were usually located downstairs, making it easy to get to his classes. Shoving the paper back in his backpack, he turned around, finding himself accidentally running over the toes of another student.

     "Oh shit!" they said, jumping back when their toes were run over, comically grabbing their foot and jumping up and down a little.

     "Oh my god- I'm sorry!" Tavros said quickly, worry knotting up in his chest. He looked up and saw the oh so familiar face of none other than Vriska. The blonde hissed in pain before straightening up, "You dick! You did that on purpose!" she glared at him.

     "Wait-what?" Tavros sputtered at the sudden accusation as the other's outburst caused people to turn heads.

     "Oh. My. God. Do you even know who you're messing with?" she said loudly, a smirk growing on her face as she noticed other looking over with looks of both pity and annoyance. He shrunk in his seat a bit, feeling embarrassed as hell. Vriska's smirk dissappeared and she grabbed the top of the wheelchair, leaning down so that their faces were mere inches apart, "You picked the wrong girl to pick on, Nitram."

     Tavros glanced over and past Vriska's head, seeing that other people's looks of pity had turned to slight anger. Did they actually believe that _he_ was picking on Vriska? "I..I wasn't picking on you!" he said in a feeble attempt to defend himself. With another nervous look around, he found that no others from the coven were around to defend him, it was only him, Vriska, and a bunch of people he had never seen before.

     Pulling back Vriska folded her arms, "Oh, sure, sure, you didn't do aaaaaaaanything!" she swiftly put her food on the armrest of his wheelchair, "Well, my foot begs to differ!" Then, adding a little more force, she successfully knocked the wheelchair over on it's side, causing Tavros to slam his head into the ground. She then huffed, spinning on her heel and storming away.

     As Tavros lied on the ground, he felt a wave of dizziness wash over him from the impact of hitting the ground.

_You shouldn't have even come to school today._

_Why even bother coming? It's not like you'll amount to anything anyways._

_Stop trying._

_Don't expect anyone to help you now, you pathetic piece of shit._

     Tavros felt tears sting the corners of his eyes as he stops trying to hold back the surge of berating thoughts. It wasn't like he could get up anyways, even if he tried. He just curled up slightly and cried like the worthless crybaby he thought he was. Suddenly, a pair of purple high tops come into his line of vision and he feels someone help him up and back into his wheelchair. Even though they weren't standing all that close to him, he could smell the weed and faint grape soda from them. Once he was back in his wheelchair, he rubs the the shameful tears from his eyes and looks up at the person who helped him.

     The teen who stood before had a lopsided grin  on his face and the messiest hair he has ever seen. Although he seemed to be relatively laid back t the moment, there was concern in his eyes as he scratched the back of his head, "Hey, bro, are you ok?" he asked.

     Tavros nodded a bit, gingerly feeling the new lump on his head, flinching when he touched it. What a great way to start the new year of school. Getting bullied by someone in your own coven. Fan-fucking-tastic.

     "Aw, good. I was pretty worried there." The taller teen held out his hand, which had some visible scars on the knuckles and his wrist was adorned with several beaded bracelets with tiny skulls on them, "I'm Gamzee."

     "Tavros..." he said awkwardly, shaking his hand. Noticing the bracelets, he couldn't help but suspect Gamzee of being a voodoo magician, as he knew that they had all sorts of strange beaded charms and such. Plus the overall theme of skulls and such. But it wasn't like Tavros had ever met one. He woouldn't know.

     Gamzee grinned as students began to file inside to their classes, "Nice to meet ya, Tavbro." He didn't seem to hesitate to give him a new nickname, but Tavros couldn't help but feel a little flattered that he was already given a nickname.

     "It's, uh, nice to meet you, Gamzee." Tavros replied, a small smile finding it's way on his face. He let go of Gamzee's hand and looked at his face with slight scrutiny, as he had to crane his neck up to get a good look at him.

     Apart from Gamzee's wild hair, it looked like he had three small scars running across his face, and dark circles under his eyes. Around his neck hung a plethera of necklaces and what looked like charms, all tangled up as if he had slept in them. They covered a band t shirt that read something like "Mad Clown Posse". Whoever they were.

     When he eventually met Gamzee's gaze, his heartbeat quickened and he quickly looked away, "We shold, uh, probably get to class."

     Gamzee seemed a bit confused for a split second before nodding, "Oh right! I motherfucking forgot for a second. Thanks man," he then reached over and mussed Tavros's hair a bit, causing the other to wince a little when he touched the bump on his head. Not noticing the wince, he handed Tavros's backpack, which was still on the ground, to him, "So what class do ya have first?"

     "Homeroom," Tavros replied, sighing a little when he remembered that it was upstairs. _Why is he being so nice to me?_ he thought in slight confusion. Gamzee nodded, "I'll walk with ya then!" he said cheerfully, getting behind the other's wheelchair and began to push him into the hallway, "Where is it?"

     "Oh, uh, you don't have to! You probably have to get to-" the bell signaling the beginning of class rung and Tavros deflated a little, feeling bad for being the reason for Gamzee being late to class, "-class..."

     The messy haired teen gave an idle shrug, "I'll get there when I get there. You don't gotta worry about a thing!" he shot him a lopsided grin and began to make his way to the stairs. The gods must have smiled upon them today, as there was a small elevator nearby the stairs, and Tavros pressed the button to go up. Looking up at Gamzee again, he felt his stomach do a flip. Tavros had always been pretty secure of his sexual orientation, seeing himself as straight, but Gamzee was making him begin to question that a bit. Once he got past the stoned, messy look to him, he found that the taller male was quite attractive. Under the scars on his face, he had a rather defined jawline and beautiful grey eyes that Tavros felt like he could get lost in if he looked for too long. He had a rather gaunt looking face (kind of like Ben Stiller's but not really), but it seemed like it wouldn't be that way if he hadn't done the drugs that he had so obviously had done.

     Once the elevator rung, Tavros jumped a bit, having almost forgotten about it as he was looking at Gamzee's face. How Gamzee hadn't noticed him doing it, he didn't know. Or perhaps he had noticed and just didn't saw anything about it? He didn't know about that either.

     Maybe today had just starting out shitty, but was going to get better...?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, that was a bit difficult for me to write. I don't usually have bullying themes in my fanfics-
> 
> I hoped you enjoyed, though!


	4. Gamzee

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some voodoo stuff and someone dies, so of course Papa Legba makes an appearance.

     Gamzee got into the small elevator, pressing his back against the wall as Tavros got inside, his wheelchair making it rather cramped. He couldn't help but feel bad for the fella. Already getting picked on on his first day. He hadn't seen what initially knocked Tavros over, but he had a suspicion that it was some bully. Tavros pushed the button to go up and the elevator doors shut, casting an awkward silence between the two. 

     "So where do ya come from, Tavbro?" Gamzee asked curiously. It was a dumb question, as he had seen Tavros before at school, so he clearly didn't come from out of state or anything.

     The other looked like he was putting some thought into the question, as if actually contemplating where he came from. Eventually, he answered. "Uh...You know that boarding house a few blocks from here?"

     Gamzee nodded, "Yeah. You live there?" The nod that Tavros gave answered that question easily. 

     Now, Gamzee didn't know much about the coven that his father ranted about often, as he was usually high as fuck whenever his father started ranting to him (correction: he was high as fuck almost all the time), and he didn't usually catch all that he said. All he knew was that his dad was kind of gay for the leader of it all called the Summoner (but it was like a hate love thing) and that they live across town from the House. Otherwise, he didn't know shit about them, so he didn't suspect a thing.

     "Sweet. I kinda live in a boarding house too, I guess." he replied, running a hand through his hair and finding part of a Dorito, "I live with my bro Equius and my actual bro Kurloz and his girlfriend, and my dad, and Equius's bro," he listed off people he lived with in no particular order, counting on his fingers. Eventually the elevator dinged and they got to the upper floor Gamzee got behind the wheelchair and started pushing it, "Now, where's your classroom at?" 

     Tavros pulled a paper out of his backpack and glanced at it before looking up, "Right over there!" he pointed and Gamzee quickly steered him over. Once they opened the door to the classroom, they found that the teacher was already saying the lecture and all eyes went on Gamzee and Tavros.

     "Uh...." Gamzee trailed off awkwardly and the teacher looked at her clipboard, "Which one of you is Tavros Nitram?" 

     Tavros sheepishly raised his hand, "Uh...that's me..."

     "And who's he?" she asked, pointing at Gamzee.

     "Yo, I'm Gamzee." Gamzee smiled and held his hand out to the teacher while people snickered.

     The teacher didn't shake his hand and Tavros awkwardly went to his seat, pulling himself out of his wheelchair and into his desk. 

     "Well, Gamzee, what classroom are you supposed to be in right now?" she asked, folding her arms. Gamzee paused, scratching his head in distant confusion, "Aw shit, I dunno..."

     The teacher scowled and the class laughed a little more, "What do you mean  _you don't know_? Where's your schedule?"

     Gamzee opened up his backpack to look through it for his schedule, finding it crumpled up at the bottom of his bag. He then smoothed it out and looked over it, "Well, it doesn't say that I gotta be here." He shoved the paper back in his bag and slung it on his shoulder, "I'll see ya later." he waved to Tavros, who's face was beet red from embarrassment at this point, and then left the room, looking for classroom 413.

* * *

     The first two periods went by rather boringly. Not much happened and Gamzee fell asleep in the first period. For some reason, he just couldn't get Tavros out of his mind, His cute little smile...or his deep brown eyes that reminded Gamzee of chocolate....ooh chocolate. He shook his head a bit and stood up to go to lunch. He grabbed his backpack and walked out of the classroom when the lunch bell rang. The table he usually sat at was off in the corner of the cafeteria, where nobody really sat. He liked just chilling there and falling asleep or something. Equius usually sat with some dude named Dirk and talked about My Little Ponies and robots, and Gamzee would have sat with them it Dirk didn't give him some weird vibes.

     When he got into the cafeteria, he got in the lunch line and bought what he usually got for lunch. A turkey sandwich, a bag of Skittles, and a grape flavored Faygo. Once he paid for his food, he made his way to his table. On his way, he caught sight of a familiar wheelchair and grinned, walking over to it, "Hey Tavbro!" 

     Tavros turned around and smiled softly at Gamzee, causing him to internally swoon a little, "Oh, hi Gamzee!" 

     One of the people that Tavros was sitting with glared at Gamzee, "Who the fuck are you?" they said rather loudly. Gamzee looked over at them and held his hand out to shake, "Sup. I'm Gamzee." 

     The shorter male looked at the hand outstretched to him as if it were a foreign object before looking back at Gamzee, "I'm Karkat." Gamzee awkwardly returned a hand to his pocket and nodded, "Nice to meet ya, Karbro."

     "Karkat."

     "That's what I said, Karbro." 

     Gamzee heard Tavros laugh a little while Karkat's face tinted red, "WHATEVER," he shook his head and returned to eating his food. Gamzee then looked down at Tavros, "So, Tavbro, do you have Trollian?" Trollian was an app kind of like Kik, but it had more customization options and was a generally cooler messaging system.

     Tavros nodded, "Yeah, why?"

     The taller teen pulled a marker from his back pocket and pulled up Tavros's sleeve before writing 'terminallyCapricious :o)' on Tavros's arm, "That's my trollian handle. We should talk more, bro. You're pretty cool." he grinned. 

     Karkat made a small noise and raised an eyebrow at the two, which Gamzee didn't notice before ruffling Tavros's hair and walking over to his table. As he walked over, he felt his phone vibrate and he looked at it curiously. 

     Huh. A message from Horuss.

adroitTechnologist [AT] began trolling terminallyCapricious [TC]  at 12:30

[AT] 8=D < Please e%cuse my interruption of your lunch, but you're needed back at the House.

[TC] NaH mAn, It'S tOtAlLy ChIlL :o)

[AT] 8=D < Very well then. Could you please bring Equius with you?

[TC] SuRe BrO

[AT] 8=D < Thank you.

adriotTechnologist [AT] ceased trolling terminallyCapricious [TC] at 12:32

      Gamzee pocketed his phone and grabbed his backpack, heading over to Equius's table, where he was having a rather fast paced conversation about Rainbow Dash, "Yo, Equius," he said, tapping him on the shoulder, "Your bro needs us."

     Equius turned around and nodded, "Oh...alright..." he got up, grabbing his backpack before following Gamzee.

     The two were the only ones in the House that went to school, as everyone else who lived there was about college age and didn't even bother attending. Gamzee lead Equius out the back door, failing to notice Tavros's eyes following him with curiosity as they left the room. 

     Once they snuck out of the school and made it to the House with a heavy silence hanging over them, what they saw was rather shocking. In the backyard on the stone table, laid a girl in a torn skirt and t shirt. Gamzee tentatively approached the table, "Oh shit...Is she...?" His eyes were wide and he was on the verge of trembling. Due to some past....rather _unfortunate_ events involving Gamzee and the slaughter of a group of teens, he didn't deal with dead bodies all too well.

     The Highblood turned to face his son and shook his head, "No, but she's almost there. Do you know her?" he asked gruffly, his almost permanent glare on his face peering at his son with an almost condescending and primal look to it.

     Gamzee shook his head as Meulin rushed over with a basket of supplies needed, setting them down beside the girl and took out a chipped mason jar that was full of a yellow powder.

     Kurloz followed her with a ceramic cup of white face paint and turned Gamzee to face him and began to apply the pasty white paint on his brother's face. Horuss took it upon himself to explain what had happened with a nervous sigh, "Meulin and Kurloz found her when they were looking for rabbits...She appeared to have been drowning prior to them finding her in the mud..." Kurloz nodded as he painted Gamzee's face.

     Despite their leader's cruel air about him and his rather murderous past, he didn't let anyone die unless it was by his hand, which was why they were performing this ritual. As Meulin prepared the girl who was being lulled into death, the Highblood grabbed some robes from a wicker chest and shoved them in Gamzee's direction when he was finished getting his face painted by Kurloz, "Put these on now, and hurry the fuck up." Gamzee nodded and hurried inside.

     Once inside, he didn't even bother to go to his room to change, and he stripped out of his clothes in the hallway, kicking them aside before pulling his clothes on. It wasn't much, as it was just traditional white linen pants and a strip of cloth to pull his mess of hair back. They shouldn't even be considered clothes. He rushed outside after changing and took the ceramic cup from Kurloz and quickly painted the proper symbols on his chest. The Capricorn sign, to signify the House of the Makara, and a rather difficult symbol above it which symbolized the diety they had to summon: Papa Legba himself.

     When they were all prepared, Gamzee, Horuss, Equius, and Kurloz took their respective places around the table with tribal drums that had clay beads hanging from them. The Highblood stood at the head of the table on which the girl laid, and gently placed his large hands on each side of her head. Meulin stood at his side with a clay bowl of assorted bones, feathers, incense, and other strange items which created an even stranger odor. The Highblood began his chant. It was a strange one in a foreign tongue, which was forgotten long ago by time.

     The teens at the drums began a steady beat, watching the Highblood at the table. His chanting began to get louder and faster, and he slowly raised his hands from the girl's head towards the bright blue Louisiana sky. As he did so, the drums began to get faster and it felt like the very air itself was shaking. The contents of the bowl in Meulin's hands burst into dark blue and purple flames as the Highblood's voice boomed in a familiar language, "I beckon you, Papa Legba, to the House of Makara!"

     Suddenly, an unfamiliar shadow appeared, rising against the wall with a deep laugh. As Gamzee pounded the drum in his hands, he stared at the shadow with wide eyes. With a turn of it's head, the shadow stared back, and grinned. The grin was a dark one. One that looked almost fatherly and one that looked like it would kill you with the bat of an eye. It sent shivers down the teen's spine and he quickly averted his eyes. The shadow eventually looked away and pulled itself into physical form.

     The figure that came from the shadows was a man, dressed in a ratty tophat that was adorned with bones and bird skulls, and wore facepaint on his face that looked a bit like a skull. Around his neck were necklaces of beads, bones, feathers, charms, and....fingers? He wore a worn black suit that had purple stripes across it, and underneath his suit jacket was his bare skin, which was as dark as the night itself and almost transluscent, faint lines where his ribcage was in white across his torso.

     As he stepped out of the shadows, the group all bowed their heads respectively to him, even the Highblood. Papa Legba grinned and nodded to the Highblood, "It's a pleasure to see you again, Makara," he said in a thick African accent. His eyes went from the Highblood to the girl lying on the table, and his smile grew as he approached her, "Is this the one who you are trying to save? This is quite interesting, as she is of witch blood." The Highblood stiffened as he heard that news and he supressed a growl.

     Papa Legba continued, running his fingers through the girl's muddy hair, "But what I find the most interesting, is that a Makara wants to save her. Considering who you are, it's surprising, no? You do know that you have to make a trade if you want to return life to a being. You Makaras should know that above all others." He smirked and looked at the other. That was when Meulin spoke up timidly, "B-but she isn't dead yet..."

     The man looked over at the girl holding the burning bowl, "Oh, but on the contrary, Miss Leijon. She has in fact passed. That pulse you felt is a mere spell. Cast by a certain high standing witch." Meulin's eyes widened in surprise, and Gamzee started trembling. He couldn't be near this. Death followed him like a shadow, even when he wasn't the one causing it. Papa Legba looked back at the girl, "I'll make you a deal," he purred, "But that's only if you don't want to reconsider bringing her back, Makara."

     The Grand Highblood had come across many questionable crossroads. To kill or spare? To fight or not? To weaken or strengthen? But this was a crossroad that could possibly spark the fire of a worse war than the one at hand. And that's just what he did. He straightened up and looked Papa Legba in the eye with a dark grin, "Papa Legba, at this motherfuckin moment, I don't got anything to offer in a deal. I think it would be best if we both decide that it is this girl's time to join you in the afterlife." He then spoke up, looking at the others who stared at him in shock, "And if any of you motherfuckers want to question my godamn decision, you can join her as well!" He cast a scathing look at them all to silence any questions, and when none of them spoke up, he looked at Papa Legba with a satisfied look, "Thank you for your  _valuable_  knowledge, Papa Legba."

     Papa Legba grinned and nodded. He loved seeing conflict among the people of Voodoo and the people of Witchcraft. It always resulted in him gathering more souls of the damned. "It's good to know that you have your priorities straight, Makara. I will see you soon." he then looked at Gamzee, who looked absolutely terrified of what had just happened, and smirked, "And I will see you sooner, I hope." he then disappeared back into the shadows as the flame in Meulin's bowl went out.

     A heavy silence fell over them all, and it was the Highblood who broke the silence after a good twenty seconds, "Horuss, Kurloz, get rid of that body." he then looked down at the girl and snatched her cracked red glasses from her face. "Make sure it will never be found." He then turned to Gamzee, "Gamzee. Deliver this to the Lost Coven. Let them know the news." he shoved the cracked and muddy glasses into the trembling teen's hands before stalking inside.

     Gamzee slowly looked down at the glasses, trembling violently now. Equius noticed this and put a hand on his shoulder, a solemn look on his face, "Gamzee...calm down..." 

     The messy haired one nodded quickly, shakily standing up and setting the drum aside as he watched his brother and Horuss wrap the body in a burlap blanket and secure it around her with ropes. His eyes traveled over to Meulin, who seemed shocked, but not at all terrified. Death was a present thing at the House of the Makara. The only one who didn't seem to be able to deal with it was Gamzee.

     It was at this moment that he decided, that he never wanted to be like the man he had looked up to from such a young age.

     He never wanted to be like his father. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I kinda cranked this one out at midnight and forgot to post it, so here it is now! Heh, late night me isn't the best author but the next chapter is gonna get better! Promise!
> 
> I hope you enjoy! :o)


	5. Tavros

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shit's going down and a war is brewing.

     The rest of the school day went by pretty normally for Tavros. After watching Gamzee and his sweaty friend sneak out of the lunch room, he got pretty much interrogated by Karkat about how he knew Gamzee and why he was even friends with him, etc. etc.

     Classes went by with Tavros doing what he usually did, which was being quiet and making sure that the teacher didn't call on him (just don't make eye contact, so it was pretty easy).

     When the final bell rang, Tavros grabbed his backpack and set it in his lap before wheeling himself out of his classroom quickly, heading to the door. At the end of school, the teens who were members of the Lost Coven would meet up together before walking home. It was a group of roughly twelve, who all just hung around the massive oak tree in the front of the school before beginning their trek home.

     As Tavros wheeled himself over to the tree, he found that he was the last to get there, and he didn't even get a break before beginning to go home. Luckily, though, Aradia offered to push him home, so that helped keep his arms from getting too sore.

     "Hey Tavros," she said softly, looking ahead as she spoke, "Did you see Jane at all today?"

     Tavros looked up at her, confusion written across his face, "No, why?"

     "Nobody's seen her since last night, apparently. Nepeta spoke to Roxy about it, and Roxy said that Jane had gone to bed last night, but she wasn't in the bed this morning."

     "Uh, wait, why am I hearing about this just now? Has someone gone looking for her?"

     "I don't know. Roxy said that she had assumed that Jane had gotten up early or something. I do hope that she's ok..." Aradia frowned a bit. It wasn't often that people went missing in the coven. The last time that anything horrible had happened was years ago, back when the old Supreme killed half of the coven.

     Tavros chewed his lower lip anxiously as a man whose face was concealed by the shadow of his hood pushed his way past them. The amputee looked up at him, and, well, something felt....off. Like he had seen him before. It was odd.

     He shook the feeling away and they soon made it to the home, where Jake was sitting on the front steps, sobbing violently while Dirk sat beside him, rubbing his back soothingly and softly saying things to comfort him. The group froze confusedly and looked to the Summoner, who stood by the door, looking down at the two with a perplexed look on his face. He then looked up at The group and walked to them, gingerly stepping past the two on the steps.

     "Go through the back and everyone wait in the living room. We have things to discuss." he then looked to Jade, who looked like she was going to go run to Jake, "Jade, you too. Everyone leave Jake and Dirk alone for a bit. Something's happened and it's best if they're left alone for awhile."

     As everyone stood in a speechless silence, the Summoner grew impatient and he waved them on with his voice raised, "Go!"

     The sudden outburst sent them all walking down the driveway, which was connected to the spacious back yard, and the silence was broken by an eruption of whispers.

     "I need to go talk to him-" Jade said worriedly, holding her backpack straps in a death grip as Nepeta gently put a hand on her shoulder.

     "Jade, you should purrobably listen to him right now..."

     "What the fuck happened?!" whisper-yelled Karkat as John shrugged dumbfoundedly.

     Aradia and Nepeta exchanged glances, as if questioning whether or not to tell them what happened, or just let the Summoner explain.

     As the chaos of whispers whirled around him, Tavros stared at his backpack worriedly. _Oh god...it's Jane, isn't it..._ he thought as he felt his blood run cold. It had to be the voodoo people, didn't it? What other explanation could there be?

     The group walked through the back yard to the back door, and filed in through there, a feeling or nervousness clinging to them all. They didn't know what to do, but then again, what _could_ they do? They didn't have any leads or anything...

    In the living room, most of the older kids in the coven were already in there. Rufioh, Damara, Meenah, and Aranea all sat on one of the couches as Roxy stared out the window with stale tears on her face as she held her cat in her arms. Instead of sitting on the couch, Rose, Roxy's younger sister, immediately walked to her to comfort her. Everyone knew that Jane and Roxy had been best friends, hell, they could have been lovers, so Roxy couldn't have been taking Jane's disappearance well.

     Tavros moved his wheelchair over to the couch, beside Rufioh, who was leaning against the armrest with a sullen look on his face. As everyone took their seats, Tavros looked at his older brother with worry, "Uh, Rufioh? What....what's wrong with Jake? Where's Jane?'

     Rufioh looked down at Tavros with a sigh, "Dad's gonna explain it, alright? It would...It would be easier if he did."

     He nodded, biting the inside of his cheek and looking forwards. He had never seen everyone this tense. Ever. It was so alien to him, that it didn't even seem like these were the same people he knew. Instead of the happy, cheerful air that usually hung about the room, there was confusion, sadness, and anger that clung to its walls. And to be frank, he absolutely hated it.

     As Tavros stared at one of the paintings of a former supreme, a woman whose title had been 'The Dolorosa', he heard the door open and his father walked inside.

     Tavros had always thought of his father as a fairly attractive man, who looked well for his age, but in this moment, he could see the responsibilities of being Supreme weigh down on him. He looked tired--no, exhausted. Worry lines etched onto his face as a frown seemed to tug it down. His usual confident, proud posture was weighed down and his shoulders slumped a bit, making him seem like an overworked businessman. He sighed, taking a seat at his coffee brown armchair across from the couch, and looked at the others.

     "Well, how was everyone's day?" he said weakly, as if trying to lighten the ever heavy mood of the room.

     Karkat shot him a glare as Jade piped up, "What's wrong with Jake?"

     The Summoner let out another heavy sigh and he ran a hand through his hair, "Jane Crocker has gone missing, and presumed dead."

     It felt like Tavros had just swallowed a weight. Someone died? Or is probably dead? Nobody knew?

     The room became so silent, that the light tinkling of the wind chimes could be heard from the backyard. Everyone had a look of shock on their face, and Roxy choked out a small sob. The Summoner spoke up once more, "As Supreme, I will be putting together a group from the Council to search for her of course. She went missing last night, and we believe she's being held hostage or was killed by a member of the House of Makara."

     "Who's that?" Meenah piped up, an evident frown on her face.

     "The House of Makara is a voodoo clan that lives on the other end of town. We had made somewhat of peace with them back in the 1700's, but it appears that they are breaking that treaty." the Summoner had a look of anger on his face, and practically spat out the name 'House of Makara' as if it were garbage.

     "What was in Jake's hands?" Feferi piped up curiously, a small frown on her usually smiling face.

     "Jane's glasses." the Summoner said as Jake and Dirk walked into the room. Jake was sniffling, still getting over his bout of sobbing as Dirk held him close with an arm wrapped around his waist.

     Jake trudged to the Summoner, handing him the glasses before taking a seat on the couch. To Tavros, he seemed broken. He couldn't imagine what it was like to lose a sibling that was so close to him. It would be like him losing Rufioh.

     "Well, uh, what are we going to do?" Tavros shakily spoke up. They couldn't just sit around and do nothing.

     "You all are far too young to be dealing with this. The Council and I are looking into this ourselves. We can't lose any more members of the Coven. We can't afford to risk it." his father said with a frown.

     Damara jumped to her feet, looking livid, "私達をちょうど座り、何もすることを期待するでしょうか？ 私達は私達自身のちびを処理することができます!" she yelled in rapid fire Japanese.

     Aradia looked up from her spot on the floor with a frown before looking over at the Summoner, who looked confused, "She doesn't like that you expect us to sit around and to nothing."

     The Summoner looked down at her with a small frown before looking at Damara, "It's safer and best if we do it that way, Damara."

     Damara scrunched up her face in rage, "に地獄を!  私たちは、子供はありません！ 私たちはこれらのやがて私達のお母さんを「よっしゃ、しなくても取ることができる私達のためのそれをしなさい ! だから私は気にして何を言おうとも、また一発平手打ちを食わせないでください！ 私はあなたの無能のため行方不明になり、私はより多くの人々に知らせることだその方法がないので彼女を見ていて、しています."

     Aradia frowned, "She says that she doesn't care what you say. She's going to look for her, and she's going to make sure nobody goes missing because of your incompetence as a leader."

     With that, Damara shot a glare at the older man before storming out of the room and out the front door. The Summoner, who looked even more tired than before looked over at Aradia, "Aradia, please, could you calm down your sister?"

     The younger Megido nodded and stood up, leaving the room to follow her sister. The Summoner stood, "Another thing. Until we find out what happened and find out who exactly did this, nobody is to leave this side of town, and nobody is to go to school until this is neutralized. And nobody is to go out alone. It's too dangerous."

     Now if the situation was different, the idea of not going to school would have made the teens celebrate, but all of them were either crying, angry, or too in shock to do anything. After his father left, Tavros made the first move and wheeled his way over to the backyard. He had to process what the hell just happened. He rolled his wheelchair down the ramp that went down the steps in the backyard, looking up at the blue sky. This was all too surreal.

     Once in the backyard, he went over to the hutches that were in the back corner of the yard, where large cages of birds, rabbit hutches, and other animals were kept. On rare occasion, an animal was sacrificed for a spell, but the animals were mainly kept here as either pets or food. He wheeled himself over to one of the larger gates, where he had a pet miniature bull named Tinkerbull was kept. Tinkerbull had a white coat that was splotched with black, black horns, and big brown eyes. He had been Tavros's pet for years, and he always took care of him as if it were his child or something. 

     He leaned his head against the warm metal poles that made up the gate for Tinkerbull's pen, and sighed as TInkerbull lazily got up and sauntered over. He reached out and gently scratched in between the bull's horns when he was close enough and looked at him, "Tell me I'm dreaming, ok?" he said softly.

     _You're dreaming then._

     He froze, his eyes widening as he stared at Tinkerbull. "What?"

     _What?_

     He sat up, running a hand through his hair with a shaky sigh, "Oh my God. I'm going crazy, aren't I? My bull is talking to me."

     _Magic is real. Don't be so close minded._

     He stared at Tinkerbull, who snorted and flicked his tail a bit, as if he were actually acknowledging what Tavros was saying. This was all too much. He shook his head, covering his face with his hands. He suddenly felt insanely uncomfortable in his own body. Like he wasn't supposed to be here. Like none of this was supposed to happen. Like he had somehow done something wrong.

     _Tavros. Tavros, look at me. Listen to me._

     The voice was soft and almost childlike. And it felt like he couldn't actually hear it, like it was in his head. He parted his fingers and looked at his bull, "W-what...?"

     _Open your ears. Open your eyes. You have to be...open._

     Tavros felt himself begin to shake, "W-what do you mean?!"

     The bull seemed to roll its eyes and huffed once more, walking closer to the gate and nudging it a bit, as if it were trying to get closer.

_Your gift. Amidst all the noise and confusion, it's here. And it's waiting for you. The more you open your ears and eyes, the more you can accept it. Although it may not be what you want, it's what you need._

     As the teen shook, he tried to take deep breaths. In....out. In......out. In.....

     He couldn't do it.

     Too much was happening, and he couldn't force another thing into his head for him to think about.

     "I....I can't do it!"

     _Just try! Tavros, it's only hard if you make it that way._ Tinkerbull didn't seem to catch on that he was freaking out.

     Tavros shook his head, "This is....this is too much. I just can't!"

     In a whirlwind of panic, he turned his wheelchair away, beginning to roll it inside hurriedly. As he got further from Tinkerbull, he could hear the other's voice fading.

     _You have to though! You have to fix this! She won't know what you're capable of! Just try...!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha, so you guys were right! Ahhh this was a quick update, but I think it turned out well! I hope you enjoyed!  
> (also, btw, I don't think that the translations are as accurate as I had hoped. I used an online translator sooo...I'll fix grammar mistakes and such later)


	6. (Not an Update, Just Some News!)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the lack of update, guys!

Hi guys! Sorry, this isn't an update, just some news!

I made a tumblr account, where I'll also be posting my fanfics, and a few one shots as well! [Here's a link to my account! ](http://annoyingbeardmentality-fanfics.tumblr.com)I won't be posting my one shots on here, as I'm keeping all of my multi chapter Homestuck fanfics on this account.

As for updates, I won't be able to update that much at the moment, as my grades aren't doing so hot, and I need to pull those up before summer so I don't have summer school, y'know? I might be able to squeeze in a short chapter or two, but I dunno at this rate.

Also, I'd love to hear some feedback of how you guys like my stories! Not only this one, but my other two The Village Girl, The Adventurer, and the Blacksmith and It's Just the Fashion Business, Baby!  
Anyways, that's all the news for now, so yeah! It means so much to me that you guys like my writing!

So hey,

Thanks!

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed! I'll probably get more motivation for updating it the more feedback I get from you guys, but I hope you guys like my headcanons for humanstuck characters!


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